Health communication through social media sites in combating Non-Communicable Disease (NCDS) and improvement of well-being in Malaysia / Aini Faezah Ramlan … [et al.]

The scenario of unhealthy habits and sedentary lifestyle in society contributed to the premature death around the world. Non-communicable disease (NCDs) as reported by health practitioners kill 41 million people each year that equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally. The National Health and Mobidity Survey in 2019 reported that NCDs threaten the progress towards the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The analysis obtain from the annual report will provide the Ministry of Health to prepare strategic tools towards monitoring and evaluating formulated health policies to strengthen healthcare delivery to the nation continuously. The alarming rise in Malaysia over the years affect the ageing nation status. World Health Organization (WHO) define non-communicable disease as chronic disease that result of long duration and combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behaviour factors. The most common causes contributing to NCDs such as unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, exposure to tobacco smoke or the harmful use of alcohol. The usage of social media platforms in combating non-communicable disease by the WHO, health care professionals and regulatory authorities is intended to address the issue of public health. Research in the field of social media and health communication should be increased to determine the effectiveness and potential influence on health improvement. This study is designed with the aim to analyse the usage social media sites as effective tools of health communication and promotions to improve well-being in Malaysia. Researcher adopted a qualitative approach to achieve research objectives through content analysis and thematic analysis in social media contents used by the Ministry of Health. The result showed that the social media content consistently portrayed health promotions, health communication and health education to encourage health awareness and behavioural change towards healthy wellbeing.